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'It's in their hands now,' says New Orleans 'Dreamer' about DACA being rescinded

Updated on September 5, 2017 at 4:02 PMPosted on September 5, 2017 at 3:35 PM

President Donald Trump announced he was rescinding the DACA program, which postpones the deportation of immigrants who arrived in the United States as children. Supporter of the program staged for Labor Day in Los Angeles on September 4, 2017. President Donald Trump has said he is seeking to eliminate DACA in six months. (Richard Vogel, The Associated Press)

President Donald Trump announced he was rescinding the DACA program, which postpones the deportation of immigrants who arrived in the United States as children. Supporter of the program staged for Labor Day in Los Angeles on September 4, 2017. President Donald Trump has said he is seeking to eliminate DACA in six months. (Richard Vogel, The Associated Press)(Richard Vogel)

Earlier this month, 18-year-old Carlos Najera, of New Orleans, started his first year at Christian Brothers University in Memphis with the help of a generous $20,000-a-year scholarship from Dreamers.US - an organization that offers financial support to undocumented immigrants protected under the Obama-era program that allows people brought illegally as children to work and study without risking deportation.

But Najera's future, and that of the other 800,000 young people in the program - including several thousand in Louisiana - was put in turmoil Tuesday (Sept. 5) after President Donald Trump's administration announced it will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The president asked Congress to pass a law to resolve the immigrants' fate before the federal government begins phasing out DACA in March 2018.

"For now, I will be ok. I have my scholarships set, my work permission. I can't think too much about the future," Najera said upon learning of the announcement. "It's in their hands now."

The decision to end DACA prompted condemnation from immigration advocates and officials in both parties. But conservatives and others who support Trump's immigration policies praised the move. Among them was Louisiana's attorney general, Republican Jeff Landry, who with other GOP attorneys general had threatened to sue the Trump administration if it did not move to dismantle DACA.

"This executive amnesty was another example of the Obama Administration bypassing Congress to advance its radical agenda," Landry said in a press release.

There were 2,323 DACA applicants in Louisiana in 2016 and a total of 8,000 eligible applicants according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. They included Najera, whose Honduran parents brought him along to the U.S. when he was only 3. He has lived in New Orleans since he was five, he said, and most of his family now lives in the state.

Najera was in middle school when he learned about his legal status, right around the time that then President Obama approved DACA through an executive order in 2012, after Congress failed to pass a law that would have legalized the so-called Dreamer immigrants. To qualify for the program, young immigrants had to be under 31 on June 15, 2012, not have a felony record and had to be in high school, or earned a high school diploma or GED.

Najera's parents helped him register.

"They told me about it and said it would be a way for me to continue my education," Najera said.

Last week DREAMERS.US sent Najera and other scholarship recipients an email notifying them that if the Trump administration were to rescind DACA, they would continue providing financial support. That helped, he said, reduce his anxiety after the administration made their formal announcement on Tuesday morning.

The announcement effectively put a stop to the processing of any new DACA applications and rescinded the policy. While Congress considers a possible solution, anyone whose status is set to expire within the next six months will be allowed to reapply so they can continue studying and working with permission.

Still, the program required eligible undocumented immigrants to register and some now fear that could make them easy target for deportation if Congress doesn't act and the administration decides to crack down.

Eduardo, a 21-year-old DACA participant from New Orleans who asked to be identified only by his first name because of his immigration status, indicated young immigrants like him have grown up in this country and are part of it. He's a third-year student at UNO, studying International Studies with a focus on Latin America. He said he works to pay for school all himself.

"They can't even argue that I am taking money from anyone," said Eduardo of those who want to end the DACA program.

Eduardo said he's been a DACA recipient since the program's inception. Both he and his brother, also a UNO student, arrived in New Orleans from Honduras when they were 9 and 6 years old in 2005, right before Hurricane Katrina. Their mother brought them along when she came to join their father, who had been working in the city.

Eduardo says he always understood what his legal status was and its significance.

"DACA meant I could work and study unafraid and really be a part of this country," he said.

The end of DACA was announced on the same day that Landry and 10 other Republican attorneys general had given as a deadline to the Trump administration to phase out the program or else face a challenge in court.

"The executive branch cannot simply sidestep the people's elected representatives in the legislative branch," Landry said in his statement praising the decision.

"What's more: DACA allowed aliens to leave and re-enter our country; removed eligibility bars from Social Security, Medicare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit; and conferred eligibility for state benefits like driver's licenses and unemployment insurance," Landry said.

Trump urged Congress to come up with a solution.

"As I've said before, we will resolve the DACA issue with heart and compassion - but through the lawful Democratic process - while at the same time ensuring that any immigration reform we adopt provides enduring benefits for the American citizens we were elected to serve," he said. "We must also have heart and compassion for unemployed, struggling and forgotten Americans."

Supporters of the program, however, argued that DACA was an opportunity for thousands of young people who grew up in the United States to work and study legally.

According to the CATO Institute, a conservative think tank headquartered in Washington D.C., 59 percent of DACA recipients reported getting their first job, 45 percent received a pay increase, 49 percent opened their first bank account, and 33 percent got their first credit card due to the program.

The article published on Jan. 18, 2017 called "The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Repealing DACA" estimates that the fiscal cost of immediately deporting the approximately "800,000 people currently enrolled in the DACA program would be over $60 billion to the federal government along with a $280 billion reduction in economic growth over the next decade."

Susan Weishar, a migration specialist with the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University of New Orleans said the silver lining of Tuesday's decision is that it may push forward the bipartisan DREAM ACT of 2017. Introduced by Sens. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Illi., the bill would permanently grant legal status to more than 1 million young immigrants who meet the qualifications under DACA.

Under the legislation, individuals would have to pass background checks, prove they are proficient in English, and prove they are either in the military, enrolling in college or finding jobs.

"In Louisiana 2,300 people applied and stuck their necks out because they had faith in our country," Weishar said. "They are working, going to school and contributing to their communities. They are the embodiment of the American Dream. Today they killed that dream."